After the disastrous display against Roma at Stadio Olimpico, Stefano Pioli spoke to the media and shared his thoughts on what went wrong. He also praised Roma for their performance, admitting that they were a lot better.
Roma took charge of the second leg early on and had a 2-0 lead rather quickly, thus extending their aggregate lead to 3-0. Milan then got some hope as Zeki Celik was sent off, but they only managed to score one goal despite being a man up for 60+ minutes.
Speaking to Sky Italia after the game, as cited by MilanNews, Pioli shared his thoughts on getting knocked out of the Europa League. He also reflected on what needed to be done better by the Rossoneri.
Milan never hit the quarter-final standard…
“Yes, very true. Roma showed more quality, more determination and deservedly went through.”
What was the problem? Tactical or mental?
“There’s a bit of everything in there. We lacked quality. We didn’t create clear goalscoring chances, although it’s equally true that we had situations inside the area where we could have scored a few more goals, taking advantage of our numerical superiority.
“We didn’t succeed because we didn’t have that quality and determination that was needed to try to overturn such a negative result after their 2-0 goal.”
An hour with one more man, still nothing…
“We had to be much more lucid, intense and faster in moving the ball around, not forcing plays and playing the entire second half close to their area. Then, when opportunities came our way, we didn’t have the quality to put them away.”
Why did you concede immediately?
“On the first goal, we failed to pick up Mancini’s run forward, then he made a great take-down and we had to be more careful. Then there was a great shot by Pellegrini. They had more quality and were more decisive in the decisive situations, it must be admitted: we were not as high a level as we thought and hoped we could be.”
Theo’s two matches…
“In my opinion, after defeats like this, it can’t just be the fault of a single player. I believe we can all do much better. We have to give credit to Roma who played very well, but we could have stood up to them and could have come out of these two legs with different results.
“We weren’t able to raise our level and we got punished as Roma are good, have quality, and are well placed on the pitch. We didn’t concede much, but when we conceded something, we suffered. And when you suffer a lot while conceding little, it means that you have to be even more careful and determined. If in these two games we had 40 shots, and then Gabbia is the only one who scores, it means that the quality is lacking.”
The derby, which is scheduled for Monday evening, is up next and one cannot even dare to think how it will look at San Siro. Milan’s confidence has hit rock-bottom and Pioli seemingly has no tactical ideas left, as we also covered in our player ratings.